J. Waylon Miller recruits friends along tour

Fifteen years ago, it seemed like every music-related magazine featured multiple cover stories on the return to ’60s-influenced “garage rock.” Teen pop was going to disappear, replaced by dorky-looking guys holding vintage guitars.

But garage rock never really took off as predicted. The White Stripes became huge, of course, but their success came primarily from stepping away from the hyper sounds of their first two records. The Strokes released one great record and then spent the next decade failing to duplicate it. Other hype-filled bands such as the Hives, Vines and Jet quickly became relegated to the dreaded “one-hit wonder” dustbin.

Now, the genre is back. This time, it’s not a movement created by press releases and magazine covers. Instead of high-tech, glossy productions, these new bands are full of fuzz and lo-fi tape hiss. It’s a genre that is slowly building on the fringes of the music world, using social media and free downloads to build a devoted fan base.

J. Waylon Miller was on the fringe of that original garage rock movement with his Rapid City band, The Reddmen. While they never approached the level of the White Stripes or the Hives, they garnered enough of a following that one of their songs, “The Secrets of Amanda Prine,” was featured on a pivotal episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

After The Reddmen broke up in 2011, Miller thought he was finished with music and moved to Arizona. Within months, however, he was back to writing and recording, and in the past two years, he has released a half-dozen or so EPs and full-length albums under the name Friends of Cesar Romero.

While Miller records as a one-man band, he regularly hits the road with whichever friends are willing to help him out. His latest lineup will appear at the grand opening of Total Drag Records on Friday.

QUESTION: How did this project, Friends of Cesar Romero, come together?

ANSWER: Two weeks after I retired, I was sitting in my air-conditioned home, and I got this call from one of my buddies in Minneapolis. He needed a session drummer to play on some of his recordings. So I flew up there, and I ended up playing on a bunch of songs. They were then putting together this compilation record on this label he had, and he asked if I wanted to contribute a song. The Reddmen had just played their last show, and he said to just write and record a song and he’d put it on there. I ended up writing a song.

The compilation didn’t come out, but as soon as I got home, I decided I wanted to start a band. I tried to jam with a bunch of people in Arizona, but it was just pulling teeth. I decided that the best way to go about this is to write a bunch of songs, and just take them to people to see if they wanted to play them. I just recruited all of my Arizona buddies to play my first Friends of Cesar Romero show.

Q: You record solo, but you have a touring band, is that correct?

A: At this point, I’m kind of all over. I’m one of those traveling guys. When I’m down there, I recruit whatever Arizona buddies want to play. I have some folks in Minneapolis that are kind enough to lend a hand and some Denver peeps. Wherever I end up going, I try to recruit those people that are there. I’m really lucky that I have people that want to play my songs. I’m not popular. I don’t make a lot of money. I can’t really pay them. They’re just doing me some solids.

Q: Fifteen years ago, there was an overhyped garage rock movement that quickly fizzled out. It’s sort of happening again, but seems to be a bit more organic with little bands springing up out of nowhere from all over the country. What do you think has inspired this?

A: My ear is not close to the ground like it used to be, but the whole garage rock movement is back. What’s cool about it is that it’s more DIY this time than it was before. Before, it was that somebody sniffed out the White Stripes, knew they’d be able to make a million dollars and cashed in on it. It just became a term. If you recorded, and it was kind of lo-fi, then it was garage rock.

That’s not true. There’s an aesthetic to it. There’s a whole other world to it. If you played an old school amp from the ’60s, then you were garage rock. That always kind of bummed me out, but at the same time I’m no purist. It’s really cool that it’s back, and nobody’s cashing in on it yet. It’s going to be interesting to see who cashes in first.

Q: For a guy who says he’s retired, you’ve released a lot of music in a relatively short amount of time. Are you always writing and recording?

A: Yeah, I am. I just love writing. I just want to keep putting out songs. Whenever you’re in a proper band, you have to save up all of your money, and out of the 20 songs you wrote, you have to pick out 12 for the record. Then those six or eight other songs have to sit around and wait for the next record. Now, with Soundcloud and Bandcamp, I can write as many songs as I like and just put them out when I feel like it. It works out really well, and I like just kicking out as many songs as I can.

Q: Why Bandcamp instead of iTunes or Amazon?

A: I hate iTunes. We put out all of these records under The Reddmen. We’d send them off to this guy who was nice enough to distribute them. He’d send the paperwork back and (iTunes) would take 30 cents of (each track), and another guy would take 30 cents and then he’d take 30 cents. Whatever was left would trickle to you. Not that we were ever in it for the money, but it just seemed a little unfair whenever you’d get those statements back. You could maybe buy a pack of cigarettes and a Red Bull after you’d get your money. For this route, it just seemed to make more sense to see where the money is all going. At the same time, (Bandcamp) just seems a lot cooler to me. It doesn’t cost me any money. I have a bunch of cassettes and I record on a four-track. Then I bounce them to a computer and upload them to the site. It may cost me like $10 and people can pay me what they want. If they want it for free, I don’t care. If they want the music that bad, they shouldn’t have to pay. I shouldn’t have to tell them how much it’s worth to them.

What: Friends of Cesar Romero with Sons of Sans Arc, Lucas With a K and Damn Your Eyes